The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Monday, September 28, 2015

DHS Is Not the Boss of My Library (Chuck McAndrew)

To kick off #BannedBooksWeek, an IT librarian from New
Hampshire explains why anonymous web browsing is critical to free
inquiry and intellectual freedom and why libraries should get behind
Tor.

It isn’t often that libraries make national news, but mine did
recently when it became the first public library in the country to host a
Tor relay. We first got some attention when we started the relay, but
the story exploded after our local police department expressed concern
about the project following an email to them from the Department of
Homeland Security. The police department said that they wanted to make
us aware of potential criminal activity on the Tor network, such as
child pornography or even the possibility of communicating with ISIS.

When
considering this project, our board of trustees had to decide whether
or not hosting a relay like this was appropriate for a public library,
especially in the face of the concerns of law enforcement. In the end,
the decision was a resounding yes. Here was a chance to put into
practice the values that we have always espoused. This project allowed
us to take a concrete step to further the cause of intellectual freedom
not just for our patrons, but for people all over the globe.

The belief that people cannot be trusted and must
be supervised to ensure they don't step over the line is dangerous and
wrong. It is this attitude that leads to mass surveillance, censorship,
and the chilling of intellectual freedom.

Tor is a powerful technology that protects the privacy of its users
by helping to anonymize their web browsing. It does this by wrapping
their traffic in layers of encryption and sending it to multiple relays
within the Tor network before it exits to the intended website. The Tor
network depends on volunteers to donate bandwidth in order to work. By
hosting a Tor relay, our library would be strengthening the network that
Tor depends on. However, the real impact would come not from our
library, but from all the others we hoped would follow after we showed
that this was practical for libraries to do. There are about 1000 exit
relays on the network right now. If 100 libraries across the country
decide to host exit relays, then we have made a significant impact on
the speed and reliability of the network.

But what about terrorists and child pornographers? There is no
question that a miniscule subset of the population will misuse this
technology, which is true of any technology. However, to do away with
protections on intellectual freedom and privacy for the general
population because of a few bad actors is the very mindset we’re
currently challenging by celebrating Banned Books Week. The belief that
people cannot be trusted and must be supervised to ensure they don't
step over the line is dangerous and wrong. It is this attitude that
leads to mass surveillance, censorship, and the chilling of intellectual
freedom. We, as a society, need to be aware of the trade offs that we
are being ask to accept when we are told to accept these practices. I do
not believe that this is a trade off that our society willing to
accept. I know it isn't one that librarians are.

If anyone suggested that librarians should freely hand over what
patrons have read, they would quickly find out how mistaken they were.
Librarians are generally very nice people, but that doesn't mean we’re
pushovers. We have risked jail time and successfully sued the federal
government to protect patron privacy. In New Hampshire, where my library
is located, privacy of patron records is protected by law. It is
wonderful that we have all of these protections for patron records, but
it isn't enough in today’s world.

Nowadays, most people access information online, even in libraries.
This is why we protect our patrons through encryption and teach them
good privacy practices. By using encrypted web connections (https), we
ensure that people aren't listening in to what we are saying to
websites. By using encrypted emails, we can put an envelope around our
email so that only our intended recipient can read it. By using Tor, we
ensure that we are free to access information and explore ideas without
having our intellectual freedom stifled by government watchdogs,
corporations, or any other busybodies.

The chilling effect that surveillance has on free inquiry is well
documented. By advocating for the right to privacy online, librarians
are, in fact, continuing the fight for intellectual freedom that they
previously displayed when pressured to ban books. If you aren't free to
examine and explore ideas, even unpopular or counter-cultural ones,
without fear of repercussions, then you can't truly have well-informed
opinions. As librarians we believe in the right of every person to
educate themselves and to draw their own conclusions without fear of
government meddling. Tor helps them do that.
Freedom, after all, depends on a well-informed citizenry who isn’t afraid to express itself, whether online or off.

For an interactive infographic featuring classic books once banned inside the United States, click here.

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Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).